After months of silence, on February 19, 2021, Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada uploaded “Update: On Moving Forward,” a YouTube video going over his legal situation with Zack “CaptainZack” Lauth. In July, CaptainZack accused Nairo of being in a sexual relationship with him. CaptainZack was 15 years old at the time, while Nairo was 20. This accusation caused Twitch to ban Nairo from their site permanently. However, Nairo released a statement saying CaptainZack raped him and initiated both of their sexual encounters. Nairo then stated he would take legal action against CaptainZack.
Nairo briefly touched on his legal case stating, “Everything has been resolved, and we have reached a legal agreement.” Nairo continued stating; he thought he could never return to his “home,” the Super Smash Bros. community. However, at midnight on his birthday, Nairo was given a Discord invite by a friend. This led him to a Discord server where fans from his Twitch community waited for him in a Voice Chat. They talked for hours about how Nairo’s stream positively influenced their lives. This support gave Nairo hope that he could return to Smash.
Many in the Smash community, like James “Void” Makekau-Tyson, Eric “ESAM” Lew, and others have posted on Twitter in support of Nairo. Other players like Justin “Wizzrobe” Hallett and Ezra “Samsora” Morris have also apologized for being quick to judge Nairo. According to Nairo’s brother, Nairo has resaved over 300 supportive DMs after releasing the video.
Unfortunately, with Twitch’s permanent banning of Nairo, it won’t be easy to return to Smash. In response to Nairo’s video, Zain “Monkeyman” Hussain organized a community-wide Twitter hashtag, #UnBanNairo. The hashtag quickly became the number 1 Twitter trend in the United States. Still, people in the community, such as William “Leffen” Hjelte, are skeptical about Twitch’s response. While Leffen believes Nairo’s account, he finds it unlikely that Twitch will reverse Nairo’s ban just because he “reached a legal settlement”.
It seems unlikely that Nairo will return to Twitch. Even Nairo acknowledges this, “I also know the reality of the situation that people will probably be hesitant. I don’t know what’s going to happen or how people will react to this, but I am going to try to move forward.” On March 3, Nairo tweeted, thanking the Smash community for their overwhelming support. He also touched on his appeal to Twitch, restating that he submitted an appeal and hopes it will be processed fairly. With no response from Twitch, the Smash community must wait and see if Nairo will return to Smash.
You can “like” The Game Haus on Facebook and “Follow” us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles written by other great TGH writers along with Jeff!
“From Our Haus to Yours”
